ined by her before, to act as an
emergency cook, he did credit to her tuition. Also Bart ran messages,
saw that the house was well locked and bolted at night, and slept on a
hastily-improvised bed under the counter. Even Deborah's strong nerves
were shaken by the horrors she had witnessed, and she insisted that Bart
should remain to protect her and Sylvia. Bart was not over-strong, but
he was wiry, and, moreover, had the courage of a cock sparrow, so while
he was guarding the house Deborah had no fears, and could attend
altogether to her sick mistress.

One of the first people to call on Miss Norman was a dry, wizen monkey
of a man, who announced himself as Jabez Pash, the solicitor of the
deceased. He had, so he said, executed Aaron's legal business for years,
and knew all his secrets. Yet, when questioned by the police, he could
throw no light on the murder. But he knew of something strange connected
with the matter, and this he related to the detective who was now in
charge of the case.

This officer was a chatty, agreeable, pleasant-faced man, with brown
eyes, brown hair and brown skin. Also, to match his face, no doubt, he
wore brown clothes, brown boots, a brown hat and a brown tie--in fact,
in body, face and hands and dress he was all brown, and this prevalent
color produced rather a strange effect. "He must ha' bin dyed," said
Miss Junk when she set eyes on him. "But brown is better nor black, Miss
Sylvia, though black you'll have to wear for your poor par, as is gone
to a better land, let us hope, though there's no knowing."

The brown man, who answered to the name of Hurd, or, as he genially
described himself, "Billy" Hurd, saw Mr. Pash, the lawyer, after he had
examined everyone he could lay hold of in the hopes of learning
something likely to elucidate the mystery. "What do you know of this
matter, sir?" asked the brown man, pleasantly.

Pash screwed up his face in a manner worthy of his monkey looks. He
would have been an absolute image of one with a few nuts in his cheek,
and as he talked in a chattering sort of way, very fast and a trifle
incoherent, the resemblance was complete. "I know nothing why my
esteemed client should meet with such a death," he said, "but I may
mention that on the evening of his death he called round to see me and
deposited in my charge four bags of jewels. At least he said they were
jewels, for the bags are sealed, and of course I never opened them."

"Can I see those bags?"